Poco F7 review

There has typically been a big gap between premium and mid-range smartphones when it comes to design and materials, but things are changing for the betterment of the mid-range segment. The Poco F7, despite its firmly mid-range price, feels like a solid smartphone that could give most premium devices some serious competition in the design and build quality departments. It also comes with a bit of character - something that most smartphones priced under Rs. 40,000 lack today.

That said, there’s nothing too adventurous here, and the Poco F7 sticks to the core formula for a full-sized smartphone today. It has a flat screen, curved corners, a completely uniform, metal frame, and a flat glass back that doesn’t feel too crowded or distracting. The dual-camera module gets nice green accents on either side of a diagonal metal line, which looks rather nice.

That applies to the white and black variants though; the rather unique ‘Cyber Silver’ colour option looks quite interesting with its see-through styling at the top. If you prefer subtlety, get either white or black, which also come with a dual-tone matte colour scheme at the back. The brushed aluminium finish on the edges goes rather well with the rest of the phone.

ALSO SEE: Nothing Phone (3) debuts Glyph Matrix, powered by Snapdragon 8s Gen 4

One thing you’ll notice immediately is how heavy the Poco F7 is. It’s has a 6.83-inch screen which means it’s not actually that much larger than most phones in the price segment or even in more expensive brackets, but it still feels hefty. This isn’t only because of the metal frame and glass -  there is a big 7550mAh battery that adds to the bulk. 

The Poco F7 gets IP66, IP68, and IP69 dust and water resistance, so it’s certified to be able to handle varied levels of exposure to water including being fully submerged in shallow water or handling high temperature liquids such as coffee spills. This could well pass off as a much more expensive smartphone based on its looks.

 

 

 

 

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The Poco F7 gets a big screen - 6.83-inch in size, to be precise - which gives it a proper big-phone feel. The display is an AMOLED with a 120Hz refresh rate, support for Dolby Vision and HDR10+ high dynamic range content, 3200 nits of peak brightness, and a resolution of 1280x2772 pixels. It’s pretty much par for the price range, and delivers an excellent viewing experience for most requirements, especially if you watch a lot of streaming content on your phone.

There’s Gorilla Glass 7i protection, and a flat screen, as is the case with most smartphones in this price segment. Auto brightness levels are on point most of the time and quick to adapt to changes in the environment.

The Poco F7 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 chipset, which is new and comes with a fair amount of improvements over the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, and largely matches up to last year’s flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in terms of benchmarks scores and performance. On the Poco F7, it comes at an attractive price point as well, making it a decent value proposition for those looking for performance but without having to splurge on very high-end devices.

You get 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM as standard, and storage options include 256GB and 512GB - both UFS 4.1. Perhaps the only spec that feels a bit dated is the USB 2.0 standard for the Type-C port, which will affect data transfer speeds over USB, but not much else in terms of charging or wired connectivity to accessories. Usefully, there is dual-SIM 5G connectivity, support for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0. There’s no eSIM support, but that shouldn’t really be a bother at this price. 

You get Android 15 with Xiaomi’s HyperOS 2; the Android version is fine, but HyperOS 2 doesn’t feel quite as polished and clean as other options in the price segment. While I didn’t mind HyperOS on the Xiaomi 15 given that it had been cleaned up a bit for the high-end device, but it’s a bit too heavy on bloatware on this device.

Uninstalling the many pre-installed and unwanted apps is one thing, but there are also various others such as the GetApps marketplace and Themes apps that you can’t really do anything about. The former constantly annoyed me with notifications and bubbles, while the latter cluttered up the customisation process. As such, all the attempts to come across as unique only hold back the Poco F7. For some reason, I just couldn’t escape the excessive notifications, no matter what I did.

More cameras isn’t just a marketing gimmick to sell phones, it’s also based on the sound logic that different cameras can take different types of photos. While three cameras is a good setup for mid-range smartphones, the Poco F7 goes with a dual-camera system featuring a 50-megapixel primary camera and 8-megapixel ultra-wide camera, along with a 20-megapixel front camera.

That leaves any significant zoom capabilities out of the mix on the Poco F7, given the lack of a dedicated sensor for it. You do get 2x in-sensor lossless zoom capabilities (essentially cropping a high-resolution shot to focus on just the targeted part of the frame), but this is understandably short of what you can get on competing devices with a dedicated telephoto sensor.

ALSO SEE: OnePlus Nord 5 review

Fortunately, Poco makes up for this with very good performance from the two-camera system, delivering excellent results with point-and-shoot photography at 1X and 2X zoom levels. I got some decent shots in well lit and slightly dull conditions, with very little effort on part part apart from choosing the frame and holding the Poco F7 steady. Ultra-wide shots are decent as well, as are portrait shots which use the stereoscopic vision of the two sensors to get depth of vision right.

Video recording at up to 4K resolution at 60fps is possible, and you can also record slow-motion video at up to 240fps natively and 960fps with software-based frame interpolation. It’s equipped for ease of use and capability when shooting everyday photos rather than anything too fancy, and the Poco F7 does a good job at that.

This is where the Poco F7 truly stands out, particularly in comparison to the competition. The big factor here is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 chipset, which is pitched as a mid-range option for those looking at a decent level of performance without splurging on a Snapdragon 8 Elite-powered device. Interestingly, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 more or less matches up to the previous-get Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 flagship on performance parameters, with a few current-get improvements to go with it.

Performance is understandably very good for the price, particularly when you compare it to the Nothing Phone 3 which has the same chipset and costs over twice as much. It’s matched with decent RAM and storage formats and levels, and HyperOS does deliver on usability and software-based performance. Multi-tasking, gaming, and everyday usability were on point with the Poco F7 during my time with the phone.

ALSO SEE: Nothing Phone 3a review

The Poco F7 also gets a big one-up on the competition when it comes to battery life, thanks to the 7550mAh battery. With moderate to heavy use, you can go as long as two days between charges, and with relatively light use as a second device, you could potentially run it for up to four days before needing to charge. It’s got enough capacity to allow for heavy use, including plenty of reserve for high-res video recording and gaming.

Charging is quick as well, thanks to 90W wired charging and the right charging brick and cable included in the box. You can get a full charge in just about an hour, or quicker top ups from mid levels in even 25-30 minutes. There’s no wireless charging on the Poco F7, but that’s not too big a compromise at this price.

The Poco F7 is a pretty solid pick for the price, thanks to good performance and top-tier battery life - both key factors when it comes to mobile gaming. It looks good, feels good, has a decent display, and also boasts of proper water resistance ratings that will keep it safe in a variety of water exposure scenarios. 

The software package has its slightly annoying quirks, but that aside, there isn’t much else to complain about on the Poco F7. It’s got the right features and specifications for the price segment and what buyers typically look for at under Rs. 35,000, making it a very attractive choice in its segment.